Poll: Waukegan residents want transition from coal to clean energy

According to a local survey commissioned by the Sierra Club, 70 percent of respondents support a transition plan to retire the Waukegan lakefront’s coal-fired power plant.

According to a local survey commissioned by the Sierra Club, 70 percent of respondents support a transition plan to retire the Waukegan lakefront’s coal-fired power plant. (Jose M. Osorio / Chicago Tribune)

Members of the environmental-activist group Clean Power Lake County returned to the Waukegan City Council this week to tout the results of a local poll commissioned by the Sierra Club that reported 70 percent of respondents supporting a transition plan to retire the lakefront's coal-fired power plant.

Sister Kathleen Long from Most Blessed Trinity Parish, who presented the poll's findings before the council Tuesday, said she believes the survey shows that "our community is asking for change, for a healthier, clean-energy Waukegan."

"We want to work with you, as leaders in the city, (with) citizens in the various wards, and we want to work with NRG, the current owners of the coal plant," Long said. "We see each other as partners. How can we move this issue forward, especially when looking at (plans) for lakefront redevelopment?"

Officials with the Sierra Club and the Global Strategy Group, a New York-based research firm, released the poll results last week, saying the findings were drawn from 300 interviews conducted with registered voters in Waukegan between Dec. 11 and Dec. 20, 2015.

Of those supporting retirement of coal-based operations at the Greenwood Avenue plant, a reported 78 percent were black, 73 percent were Latino and 64 percent white. Higher numbers in each category were reported when respondents were asked if they supported more energy generation from solar fields.

From a political perspective, a reported 77 percent of those in favor of transitioning the plant away from coal were Democrats and 58 percent Republican or independent. Global Strategy vice president Anthony Baumann said during a Jan. 14 media conference call that the pollsters had taken "great care" to cover all nine wards in the city and all demographics.

Baumann added that support for ending coal operations at the plant was "pretty solid across demographic lines, but in particular among Latino voters, with 81 percent of that cohort favoring a transition away from coal" when the question was presented a second time after listening to statements for and against the practice.

Christine Nannicelli with the Sierra Club's Beyond Coal campaign in Illinois said last week that she believes the poll results reflected an ongoing effort to push for NRG to explore other options for generating power at its Waukegan Station.

"We've knocked on hundreds of doors in the county and talked to thousands of residents, and it's good to see this poll reflecting what we've heard," Nannicelli said. "The real question here is whether Waukegan will be part of (a transition), or will it be left behind?"

In December, Clean Power Lake County members presented the City Council with a reported 2,000 petitions signed by residents calling for the formation of a task force to study options for plant operation and future land use. Asked what response she had fielded from city officials following that effort, Nannicelli said, "We have yet to hear a ton of feedback, (but) the feedback was positive."

"Now I think the team is just ready to follow up with each of (the aldermen) one by one to build support for this transition task force," added Nannicelli, saying that "the urgency of a community transition plan should be absolutely clear to Mayor (Wayne) Motley and the City Council."

At Tuesday's council meeting, Motley told Long that he had spoken with Waukegan Station representatives earlier in the day. Elaborating on that following the meeting, Motley said the discussion revolved around setting up a meeting with not just local plant managers but officials with the New Jersey-based parent company.

"I'm trying to set up a meeting with NRG and the Sierra Club," Motley said. "I've been trying to do that for a while, and (NRG is) a little bit hesitant, and I understand that. But we're trying to get all the ducks in a row, and I'll work something out."

Motley added that he feels the situation is a complicated one, saying "you've got a several-hundred-million-dollar investment down there" while weighing environmental and economic concerns.

"I'm not opposed to clean energy," Motley said, "but they pay the city of Waukegan in taxes almost $900,000 (annually). That's substantial. They're the second-highest taxpayer in the city of Waukegan."

Reached for comment on the Sierra Club polling on Wednesday, NRG spokesman David Gaier reiterated recent statements pointing out that the company expressed a commitment to continue operations at the Waukegan Station with coal shortly after acquiring the plant in August 2014.

"The plan's central focus was to clean up and modernize the Illinois fleet with a more than half-billion dollar investment — one that's already producing historic and massive emissions reductions," Gaier said in a statement. "We've now completed a project to install state-of-the art environmental controls at Waukegan, along with a $3 million investment for a Waukegan solar project that is moving forward rapidly.

"The recent poll notwithstanding, there are a great many supporters of NRG's Waukegan Station, which is safely and reliably producing affordable power, providing many skilled and well-paying jobs, significant tax revenue for the city, and additional economic benefits for Waukegan and the region."

According to an asset list posted by NRG last autumn, Waukegan's coal-fired boilers generate 689 megawatts of power, or enough to cover 550,000 residences. The $3 million solar project referred to by Gaier is aimed at installing energy panels on the roofs of Waukegan Public School buildings, a project that is reported to be making progress this winter after stalling last summer. A list of schools to be fitted with panels is reportedly expected to be finalized by the end of this month.